


She Blinded Me With Science

by calliesghost



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-26 11:43:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12058293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calliesghost/pseuds/calliesghost
Summary: AU - Delphine is a Geneticist working at the mysterious and secretive DYAD institute, and Cosima is a graduate Biology student in Dr. Cormier's lab.This one is for my buddy ;)





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ReindeerUnicornEleventy3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReindeerUnicornEleventy3/gifts).



Cosima’s eyes flew open exactly nine minutes before her alarm was set to go off. Her brain was racing, which isn’t how normal brains are supposed to be wired to function at almost 2 o’clock in the morning. Cosima had been working on a new experiment in Dr. Cormier’s lab, and she was pretty sure that the hundreds of past failures were about to be erased with one, brilliant, shining moment of success. She smiled and flew out of bed. She tied her dreadlocks into a tight bun before jumping into a hot shower.

She let the warm water release the tension in her neck and back as she thought about the experiment. That was a lie. She was thinking about Dr. Cormier. Delphine. Jesus. The female Jesus. Goddess incarnate. All of the above. She felt a brief pang of guilt. She clearly wasn’t doing any of this work for the betterment of society, or to help further the field of Evolutionary Developmental Biology. She wished she cared more but, to be fair, most of Delphine’s work was so secretive she didn’t know what was really going on anyway. She knew enough to run her part of the experiment, and that was all.

Dr. Cormier was one of the “Lead Project Geneticists” at the DYAD institute, but she also worked part time at the University, teaching graduate Biology courses. Her work with DYAD was as secretive as her title. Cosima was pretty sure they were cloning humans over there, but Felix, her roommate, kept telling her that was ridiculous. “Whatever,” she had told him. “The Chinese are for sure already doing it.”

Cosima was one of seventeen graduate students working in the lab. She was about 90% sure Delphine didn’t even know her name. But that was all about to change. Cosima had been working on tissue cultures, trying to get the stubborn genetic mutant tissue to grow under various oxidative stressors and infected states. Again, she didn’t really understand the reasoning behind it, but she explained it to Felix as trying to build superhuman skin.

Every single culture died within 24 hours. It didn’t matter what medium she used, what light source, what incubation temperature. The tissues would shrivel and die when exposed to any harsh stimuli including basic infections with bacteria as wimpy as staphylococcus, which in this form was sensitive to penicillin. Her superhuman skin was susceptible to infection that had been curable since 1928.

But then last week, she was smoking a joint out on the fire escape at her decrepit flat when an idea occurred to her. She was mesmerized by a patch of black mold in the corner of the scaffolding. It was growing exponentially, despite the fact that it was winter time, and bloody cold outside. She had stared at it for several minutes, and then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Maybe the tissue doesn’t need to be incubated. Maybe it needs to be frozen.

Felix had laughed at her idea. “The low temperature will arrest the growth of the tissue, not just halt the infection. The idea is that the tissue must grow.” Cosima just nodded. “Yeah, man - but we don’t know what genetic alterations these tissues have. Their metabolism could be completely different under these circumstances. I mean what could it hurt to try?” Felix just poured himself another glass of vodka and turned his lip up at her. “This is what happens to your brain when you smoke too much pot,” he quipped. “You come up with ridiculous ideas and waste everyone’s time.”

Cosima was smiling to herself in the shower as she thought about this exchange. In less than an hour, she would know if her theory was correct. If it was, Delphine would definitely learn her name.

~***~

Cosima let herself into the lab and turned on the bank of lights near her work station. She was careful not to disturb the darkness near any of the mouse cages, as she was also throughly convinced that the mutant mice were evil and she tried to interact with them as little as possible. She squinted at the tissue cultures through the glass door of the freezer. Only 6 minutes until the moment of truth.

She was rubbing her hands together nervously as she watched the clock. Two or three minutes wouldn’t make much of a difference, but she wanted to do this by the book. 3 am would be 24 hours since she infected the tissues. If they survived, this would be the first time this cell line had made it this far. It would be a significant breakthrough for Delphine to use moving forward in… whatever the fuck she was doing. Cosima let her mind wander to a vision of the older blonde woman’s smile when she told her about the success.

When she couldn’t stand it any longer and there was under 60 seconds remaining on her timer, Cosima threw open the freezer door and pulled out the tissue plates. They weren’t just alive, they had grown. The skin was growing new blood vessels! Angiogenesis! And no signs of infection! Cosima was completely flabbergasted. “Holy shit!” she cried out, into the vast empty lab.

Immediately after her outburst she heard the sound of crashing glass shattering on the tile floor near the back of the lab, followed by a string of French expletives. She quickly put the cultures back in the freezer and put a hand to her mouth, as if that would turn back time. “Fuck,” she whispered. There was no mistaking that voice. Delphine was in the lab.

Cosima paced around her small area for a moment, unsure of what to do. She didn’t know if she should hide… for a moment she considered crawling under the lab desk. Her brain was going a hundred miles a minute. This isn’t how this was supposed to work out! She was supposed to get the chance to write everything up and present it to Delphine neatly, coherently… you know, in the daylight.

Delphine tentatively peered her head around the corner of her vast office door. She looked terrified. She was wearing her glasses, and had no makeup on. Her blonde curls were tied up in a messy bun. She was the most beautiful thing Cosima had ever seen. As per the usual, she was struck speechless just by the sight of the woman.

“What in gods name are you doing here? You nearly scared me to death!” Ok so Delphine seemed angry. This was bad. Cosima thought quickly. Maybe if she just came out with the news now it would make up for the fact that she almost gave her a heart attack? Seemed reasonable. She decided to proceed.

“Um, so ah…um… I’m Cosima.” Delphine just tilted her head to the side, as if Cosima was not speaking English… or, even - human words. “I know who you are, Ms. Niehaus,” she stated simply. Cosima’s eyes widened at the sound of her name from Delphine’s lips. The words were like honey, running down her spine and pooling between her legs. For a long moment she failed to realize she had been struck mute.

“You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing in my lab at this time of night? Besides shouting expletives like a disgruntled child and disrupting my concentration?” Cosima snapped to, her vision suddenly clear. She couldn’t waste this opportunity to impress her favorite blonde. God that hair. She looked like a freaking puppy dog. She wanted to reach out and stroke it… she shook her head, trying to steady her thoughts. Delphine probably thought she was having a stroke.

“I um. Well I had this idea. It was a long shot, but - well. It worked.” Delphine took a few steps forward, clearly intrigued by the curious dreadlocked girl who was just crazy enough to be working at 3 am. Cosima ran through her speech in her mind. She was pissed - she wanted to make this just right. But it was too late now. She had to explain.

“You’re working on tissue cultures, correct? The skin grafts?” Cosima nodded vigorously. “Yes, yes - that’s right. And, as you probably know, they all fucking die. Like, right away.” Delphine flinched a little at her language. She wasn’t used to students being so bold in her presence. She tried to hide a smile though - this girl was entertaining, that’s for sure. And she was adorable. Now it was Delphine’s turn to shake her head. She’s a student, the blonde thought. She’s at least 10 years younger than you. And she may be crazy.

Cosima waited until Delphine made eye contact again before she resumed her unprepared speech. She didn’t know quite how to explain what made no sense to her amateur brain, so she thought she’d just show her. “Ok this is going to sound super crazy, but come over here for a second.” Delphine raised an eyebrow, skeptically.

“I’m not going to bite, I swear.” Cosima flashed her signature grin, revealing her dimples. This girl, Delphine thought. She was intrigued. No, it was more than that. She was mesmerized. “What are you up to?,” she asked. Cosima noticed a slight grin had worked its way into the corner’s of Delphine’s mouth. She had a chance. This was her opening.

Delphine started walking towards her, and Cosima was momentarily paralyzed. She realized Delphine was waiting for the “big reveal.” She quickly opened the freezer and removed the most impressive of the tissue samples. She gestured for Delphine to follow her to the microscope bay, which the blonde did - quickly. Delphine’s excitement was mounting and she was trying to hide it. What on earth was this girl doing with tissue cultures in the freezer?

Cosima expertly uncovered the tissue and brought it into focus under the microscope. She found a perfect field of view which showed the live tissue and displayed some of the angiogenesis occurring at the periphery of the culture plate. She stepped aside to allow Delphine to move forward and glance into the scope.

Cosima inhaled deeply as Delphine moved in closer. This was the closest she had ever been to the woman, and she felt as if all the tiny hairs on her arms stood on end as Delphine swept past her, like a wave of static electricity. She smelled of expensive French perfume, and a hint of cigarette smoke. And there was something sweet underneath, like cloves - or sandalwood. Cosima was so lost in her daydreams about the woman that she forgot she was about to have her big moment.

Delphine gasped as she took in the view under the microscope. This was unprecedented success. Why would the tissue grow in freezing temperatures? This made no sense. And how would this girl even think to pursue this?

Cosima wasn’t even thinking about the tissue cultures anymore, not since Delphine had leaned over the microscope in heeled leather boots, essentially jutting her ass into Cosima’s face. Jesus Christ, this woman. Who wears heels in the lab? At 3 am? Her mind was completely boggled. She had never been turned on like this before, simply by looking at a woman. She wanted to tear off Delphine’s white coat and have her - right there on the bench next to the microscopes and the superhuman skin.

Delphine pulled back and replaced her glasses, a adorable twitch setting into her eyelid. Cosima couldn’t stop looking at her. She had never seen her face this close before. She looked like she was carved from precious stone. Before she knew it, Cosima was stammering again. “So uh, this is helpful to you -right? like you can use this?”

Delphine was taken aback. She truly didn’t know what to make of this curious girl. Why was she working this hard to help her? She didn’t need any of this research to graduate, this wasn’t even her primary area of interest. She didn’t even know what these cultures were for! Why was she here at 3 am, and how did she manage to make a breakthrough that had kept Delphine and 30 other geneticists up late for the past six months?

Delphine was not used to offering public displays of….niceness. She was known on campus as an ice queen, and that worked well for her. The students didn’t bother to try to get to know her. The problem was, then, no one ever tried to get to know her. She was sleeping with Aldous Leekie. He was a famous biologist and geneticist. But he was old, and she was growing tired of fucking him only to get ahead. She spent nearly 20 hours a day in her lab. If she couldn’t get ahead in science simply by doing the science, maybe it was time to reconsider what the hell she was doing at DYAD.

Until this random night, she hadn’t thought she had the data to move forward without him. Her brilliant tissue couldn’t even survive in culture. But now… now there was a light to move forward. And it was all because of this girl. This random, crazy, quirky girl - who she was pretty sure was starting at her ass right now.

A realization and crazy thought struck Delphine. Could Cosima be doing this because she fancied her? No. Of course not. Jesus. She was almost old enough to be her mother. And she had never even spoken to her before. Cosima didn’t even think Delphine knew her name. She shook the thought from her mind.

“This is… extraordinary, Ms. Niehaus.” Delphine couldn’t think of anything else to say, even though her words vastly undervalued Cosima’s discovery. Both women’s minds were racing, both were nervous like school children on the back of the bus, playing truth or dare.

“So yeah um…what’s all this for anyway?” Cosima thought she’d ask. Now was as good a time as any. If she didn’t get an answer now she probably wasn’t ever going to know. Delphine stepped back from the microscope and leaned against the table, cocking her hip out. She managed to look simultaneously hot and casual in literally any position. Cosima shuffled her feet and felt conspicuously awkward.

“Well, young lady. Would you like to help transfer these cultures to the DYAD lab and continue to work with me to find out?” Cosima’s eyes were wide. Did Dr. Cormier just offer her a job? “Well yeah, fucking obvs I wanna do that!” Cosima couldn’t help herself, she sprung forward and hugged the blonde woman.

Delphine was paralyzed as the shorter brunette flung strong arms around her shoulders. She was surprised at the way her whole body reacted to Cosima’s touch, tensing up rigid, then melting into her frame like a puzzle piece. Cosima thought she must be imagining things when she felt Delphine relax against her. She thought she must be hallucinating the long fingers slide gently down her lower back.

The embrace lasted only seconds, but both women pulled back wide-eyed. The magnetism between them surprised them both. Well, it surprised Delphine more - Cosima had already been nursing this crush for nearly a year. But she was happy that Delphine hadn’t pulled away from her. She would take anything she could get at this point. She would do anything just to be near her. She wanted to drink her in, to taste every inch of her skin. She caught herself looking Delphine up and down and shook her head as if ridding herself of images of a ghost.

“Did uh, did you see the new areas of angiogenesis?” Cosima piped up, her voice squeaking like an adolescent boy. Her armpits were sweating and her knees were weak. She couldn’t believe this woman could have this dramatic effect on her - after just an embrace. God what this woman could do to her…

Cosima was so lost in her daydream she almost didn’t hear Delphine respond. “No, that’s ridiculous,” she said. “There is no way there could be angiogenesis this early, especially in skin that is likely almost dead.” Cosima just grinned her patented dimpled smile and beckoned Delphine back to the microscope.

As Delphine leaned over, Cosima got closer this time. She gently pushed Delphine over and shared the connected second eye piece, putting their faces inches from each other. In a moment of boldness, she reached out and placed her hand on top of Delphine’s over the focus knob, and gently turned it, bringing the area of tissue into focus. Delphine gasped again and she turned to look at Cosima.

Delphine squinted her eyes, as if trying to understand this curious creature who had so elegantly solved her tissue culture problem. She was mesmerized. Her hand felt hot underneath Cosima’s, and the brunette was not pulling her hand away. They were both staring at each other, each daring the other to retreat first - neither wanting to break the magnetic connection.

Their reverie was interrupted with the harsh thrill of a cell phone from Delphine’s office. Cosima watched as the sparkle died form the blonde’s eyes and she pulled away from the microscope. “I’m sorry… that’s Aldous, I must be going. Come see me later today and we will discuss the DYAD position.”

It was Cosima’s turn to be paralyzed. She watched Delphine’s whole countenance change when she heard the ringtone. Felix had told her he suspected Aldous and Delphine were fucking, but she had never believed it. She felt sick to her stomach. She heard Delphine’s voice lilt lightly through the lab, a soft French - Aldous spoke French? Cosima definitely didn’t speak French. If tonight was any indication, she barely spoke English. But she knew she didn’t dream up the connection they had felt. And her experiment had fucking worked.

So…game on, Aldous, she thought as she gathered up her things. Game on.

 

 


	2. The French Connection

Cosima’s twin disappeared from the computer screen. “Hello? I’m mid-crisis here! Sarah!” Cosima leaned closer to the screen, as if she could uncover Sarah from the shadows. She yelled louder. “Sarah! Come back!” The mirror image of Cosima wasn’t exactly a mirror image. Sarah’s hair was shorter and lacked dreadlocks, and Sarah didn’t wear glasses. “I’m here, Coz. I’m just confused as to what exactly your crisis is, what are we talking about again?”

Cosima took off her glasses and rubbed her temples as she fumbled around her desk for a lighter. “Ok,” she started, her hands already gesturing wildly. She lit a joint and exhaled a large puff of smoke into the camera. “So. She wants me to work in this big corporate lab, like on the Superman skin stuff. And I think I may be in over my head, because I literally didn’t understand half of the words she said to me this afternoon.” Sarah just laughed. “Leave it to my sister to end up taking a job she doesn’t understand because she was mindfucked by some blonde foreigner. Was it the science lingo you didn’t understand, or the French accent?”

Cosima gave her the finger. “If you were here I would slap you. I totally get her French accent. But she must think I’m like, a post-doc student, because she is trying to explain the genetics of this project to me at a level that… oh shit. She really still has no idea who I am.” Sarah just kept laughing. “So what did you do, Coz?,” she asked between chuckles. “You just let her talk and you nodded along, didn’t ask any questions. What was going through your mind? Wait. Maybe I don’t want to know the answer to that.” Cosima grinned her signature, dimpled smile.

“You’re no help, Sarah. I’m just gonna wing it. It’ll be fine. I’ll just pretend I know what I’m doing. Fake it till I make it.” Sarah glanced down at her phone which had started beeping incessantly. “Oh shit. Coz, I gotta go. You got this. Good luck with your, ah, French connection.” Cosima gave her the finger again as the screen went black.

~***~

Delphine was dreaming again. She had awakened in this way, drenched in sweat, every night this week - every night since she had seen Cosima in the lab. At first, she was amused by the fact that this strange girl had penetrated her dreams. Amused wasn’t the only word for it. She awoke with a start and shook her head; as if trying to remove cobwebs. She squinted her eyes to look at the clock in her lab office. It was 3 am.

She hardly ever slept at her apartment any more, preferring the solitude of her office. She used to sleep on the more comfortable couch in her office at the DYAD, but since her run in with Cosima she had taken to sleeping in her University office. It was smaller, and darker, and the lab equipment was far inferior. But she couldn’t stifle a hope that perhaps she would run into the girl again. Maybe she would have another brilliant idea that could only come to fruition in the middle of the night.

Fuck. Why was she still thinking about that girl, for fuck’s sake. She chastised herself and poured herself a drink from Aldous’ bar in the corner of the lab. The bourbon was high quality, and went down smoothly. She felt momentarily stilled, but knew the feeling wouldn’t last. She was so jumpy. She felt detached, and meandering. She couldn’t find her sense of purpose, couldn’t find her anchor to reality. It had been 4 months since she moved to the US to work in Aldous Leekie’s lab. She still hadn’t made the breakthrough she knew everyone at DYAD was waiting for. She knew she had let Aldous and everyone else down. She was supposed to be this brilliant, young geneticist. She felt like a child. And the only breakthrough she had in weeks came from the mind of a student.

She missed her family in France, she missed her house, and her bed. She had somehow allowed things to veer so far off course. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This wasn’t how her dream was supposed to turn out. She sat back down at her desk and took another large gulp of bourbon. She opened her laptop and started reading some of the reports that had came in last night from her post-doc students. Page after page of failed experiments flooded her desktop.

Just as she was feeling her eyes start to cross, a new email pinged in her inbox. Her attention was pulled by the notification. It was from Cosima. There were two links in the message. The first was to an article that Delphine had just found and read earlier that day, about frozen tissue cultures. Even though it was old science and old information, it was touching to see that her student was up at 3 am, trying to catch up. Delphine smiled at the thought.

She knew she had been incredibly brief about the job description when she spoke with Cosima earlier in the week. She was too flustered by the girl’s presence to make a coherent presentation of words, let alone describe her life’s work. She admired Cosima’s grit - she doubted she would have the same self-confidence to proceed in the complete dark the way Cosima was; trusting blindly in science which she didn’t understand. That idea suggested a leap of faith which was incomprehensible to Delphine.

Delphine clicked on the second link in the email, which showed a picture of a spacious office area. There was a raised platform area with a Persian rug and well-worn couch. There was art hanging on the walls and Japanese wall dividers created warmth in an otherwise cold space. Her eyes flicked to the text under the photo: “If you’re going to continue spending most of your nights on a couch in your office, may I suggest some interior decorating upgrades?” Delphine’s hand flew to her mouth. “Merde,” she whispered, into the dark space. How would Cosima know she spent most nights in her office? Was she spying on her?

Delphine hastily drafted an email in response. “You’re up late, young lady. I’m impressed with your dedication to the project. I’ll send you some more articles to look through, then we can discuss setting up some experiments at the DYAD for next week. I’m sorry if I wasn’t more descriptive about the job earlier. It’s been a rough week.” Delphine hesitated here, unsure if she had revealed too much personal information. She decided to proceed. The girl had already guessed she was sleeping in her office. It doesn’t get much more personal than that. Or could it?

She was about to hit send when she hastily typed an afterthought. “I will also look into these office upgrades you have suggested. You’re right about the couch. I have awoken with a strain in my neck every day this week.” She ended the sentence with a smiley face, then quickly erased it. She shook her head at herself. She was acting like a teenager. She felt giddy like a teenager. Fuck it. She hit send anyway.

~***~

Halfway across town, Cosima read the email reply with a huge grin on her face. Her suspicions were right. Delphine was totally sleeping in her office, which meant her relationship with Aldous was totally on the rocks. Well, at least it wasn’t perfect, which meant there was room for doubt, which meant there was hope for her. She sat back in her chair and lit another joint.

What was she really trying to accomplish? Why was she so fascinated by this woman? Cosima had her share of crazy crushes, but this was different. She had never gone out of her way to get to know someone like this before. She had never wanted to. It was certainly out of character for her to do anything that involved more work, and this whole thing certainly smelled of more work. Lots of reading. Lots of catching up. Why was she doing it? This was crazy.

Well, you know what would be even crazier? She could go over there and talk to Delphine right now. She could ask her all the 37 questions she had written down since she started trying to read the background research for the new job. Delphine was clearly awake…No. That was a bad plan. She had her opening, now she had to take it slowly. Delphine was clearly going through a rough time. She didn’t want to make it worse by throwing a huge curveball into her life. Not yet, not before Delphine knew her, knew her intentions. Cosima sighed and put out the joint in her favorite ashtray. Patience, she told herself. Patience.


End file.
